


Is There Even A Midnight In Outer Space?

by HungryLibrary



Series: No sleep for the homesick [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/F, Pre-Relationship, alfor was blue paladin in this fic bc it'd be funny, but allura appreciates it, just chattering and hanging out, old ancient rediscovered wip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 14:25:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17408576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HungryLibrary/pseuds/HungryLibrary
Summary: Allura's up late. Staring at the table where long dead friends and family used to sit.And of course Pidge turns up again, just like the first time.





	Is There Even A Midnight In Outer Space?

"So, where did you used to sit?"

It was a different night but the same place and the same person who had found her again.

Apparently she wasn't the only one unable to rest properly or stay put while everyone else, aside from Coran, kept to their rooms. Allura had to wonder what Pidge was using the Green Paladin's quarters for if not for sleeping in. Perhaps some of the mess in the Green Lion's hanger had migrated there.

Glancing at Pidge, Allura saw the Paladin was eyeing the dining hall table curiously.

"At the far end." She gestured to her seat. "Just to my mother's right."

Pidge made a soft sound of interest.

"Does you sitting there mean anything special, like rank or etiquette or something?"

The Paladin was obviously trying to make small talk and Allura couldn't help but feel incredibly grateful for it.

"Yes." She said, warming up to the topic more than she would have usually, eager to wash out the ashen aftertaste of the nightmare that had she had managed to have in a spare half-varga of sleep.

"The seat of honor is on the far side opposite the room's main entrance, which my mother naturally took as Queen of the Castle of Lions. She was left handed, so sitting on her non-dominant was a mark of her trust in me, and being in the seat next to her marked me as next in line."

"Huh." A real note of interest sparking in Pidge's voice. "So what about your dad? He was King wasn't he? Where'd he sit?"

"King Alfor-"

Allura had to pause for a moment to swallow down a lump in her throat.

"My father was King, but he was also a Paladin and so sat with the rest of his fellows, arranged to mirror their places as part of Voltron."

She nodded towards a seat on the left, one down from the end of the table nearest them. "His place was next to the Red Paladin and across from the Yellow."

Silence followed this explanation.

Looking around Allura found Pidge was gaping at her, jaw actually hanging open.

"Your dad was a Paladin?"

Allura blinked. "Yes? Didn't Coran or I mention that already?" She tried to remember if they had, but the days since waking from cryo and reforming Voltron had been a blur and the lack of sleep didn't help her any in sorting through them.

A vehement shake of the head from Pidge answered the question for her anyway.

"You definitely didn't. His was the Blue Lion, then?" A mischievous smirk slipped across Pidge's face.

"Does that mean he was anything like Lance-"

"Absolutely not." Allura cut the idea off with a glower.

Pidge's smirk widened into a grin. "But that's how the Lions work, isn't it. They need someone who matches them, in personality or quintessence or whatever, in order to form a bond. Right?"

Allura felt her glower intensify.

"Maybe so." She said grudgingly. "However the traits of the Blue Lion are playfulness, a social nature, and a general tendency towards mediating. Lance may have some of this attributes and be capable of developing those he currently lacks, but that is where his similarities to my father end, I promise you."

Pidge snickered. "And I believe you. Just don't tell Lance he's piloting the same Lion as a king once did or his ego might just go super nova, killing us all instantly."

Allura rolled her eyes.

"There is nothing special about Lion's being bonded to royalty." She pointed out, tucking her hands behind her and leaning back as she relaxed against the doorframe.

"All the original Paladin's of the Lions were leaders of powerful worlds. Binding them and their people together as friends was the main thought behind the forging of Voltron. We all knew we could not afford another war like the one that had raged between the Alteans and the Galra..."

She sighed.

"Not that it worked in the end, but that was the hope Voltron and the Lions were founded on."

Pidge was once again left looking thunderstruck.

"... I feel like I should be talking notes of all this." The Paladin said faintly. "It's like falling into a history book."

History. A hollow pang rang through Allura's chest as she looked down at the floor.

"A history book can be a very dangerous place to be."

She had read records of many terrible things as a child. Wars, deaths, betrayals and futile fight after futile fight, worlds and cultures lost just as Altea had been.

Did any of the records of today remember Altea? Were there parts of her home still floating here and there, scattered across the galaxy, living on in words if nothing else- or had Zarkon wiped even those from existence?

History was written by the victor, after all. If they lost, Zarkon would likely erase them as well and make it so that no one ever knew of how the Princess of Altea and the second rise of Voltron had dared stand against him. That would be their last and final defeat, she supposed.

"Eh."

Pidge, not privy to Allura's dark thoughts, didn't look particularly troubled at the thought of living through a pivotal moment in history.

"It's not the worst place to be, though." The Paladin said with a shrug. "At least I get to try doing something now, instead of being stuck on Earth doing homework or whatever with no idea some ancient purple asshole is rubbing his greedy little hands all over my galaxy."

Allura heard herself laugh.

There was something strangely irresistible about Pidge's wording and the Paladin's supremely blasé expression.

Pidge looked over at her and grinned again, warmer and less mischievous this time. "Am I right?"

Allura shook her head and tried to collect herself.

"Does Earth not have an expression along the lines of  'You won't dread what you do not know to fear'?"

"Ignorance is bliss, you mean?"

Pidge let out and unimpressed sound.

"Sure, but I never liked that saying." The Paladin closed one eye in an oddly purposeful lopsided blink. "Knowing all sorts of stuff is kinda my whole thing after all."

And so was distracting princesses who were in desperate need of distraction it seemed. By now Allura could barely even remember what her nightmare had been generally about, let alone the painful particulars.

She appreciated the breathing space Pidge seemed able to carve out for her. It would be nice to say as much, but all she said instead was-

"Spoken like a true Paladin of the Green Lion."

Pidge's head inclined slightly.

"And picked by the Princess of the Castle of the Lions herself, who must have a really good eye for it."

Allura snorted. Pushing off the doorframe she glanced down the hall towards the kitchen.

"The Princess also happens to feel like a midnight snack after all that talk of dining etiquette." Allura shot a hopeful look at the Paladin. "Would you care to join me over a plate of food goo?"

The mention of food goo made Pidge pull a face.

Even so the Paladin was quick enough to fall in step with Allura and head off down the hall together.

"I'll keep you company and do a little more work." Pidge said firmly, giving the laptop a pat. "But you'll have to enjoy the goo on you own. The stuff looks like something that would kickstart a superhero comic."

"A... super hero comic?"

Allura frowned, wondering if the Castle's translator had bugs in it after all.

"Yeah, you know." Pidge waved a hand airily.

"Like the glowing green stuff that someone touches or falls into or whatever, and then it mutates them into a hero or a main villain-"

The Paladin stopped suddenly.

"Why the hell am I assuming that an alien culture from across the galaxy would have superhero comics, never mind know about Earth tropes?" Pidge muttered. "The food goo isn't appetizing by Earth standards, basically."

"But what is a 'super hero comic'?" Allura repeated, intrigued by the word salad.

"And how does a glowing substance change the morality of a person? Is it a parasite, or some off form of Quintessence, or does its effects vary depending on what sort of base personality it comes into contact with?"

Pidge's mouth opened, clicked shut, and opened again as the Paladin tried to find the right words.

"That's not... It's more like... none of its really..."

The hand not holding laptop reached up to scruff agitatedly through Pidge's messy hair.

"Okay. This is could take a _long_ while to untangle."

"We _do_ have all night." Allura pointed out, trying to hide how eager she was to spend the next few vargas holed up in the kitchen with Pidge, talking  about Earth and anything else that had absolutely nothing to do with war or Zarkon.

With company like this, she might just be able to get used to her strange new world after all.


End file.
